Hit this Project Out of the Park

bat: (noun) a usu. wooden implement
used for hitting the ball in various games.–
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

In the early years of baseball, around
1845, bats were homemade, rough-cut with an axe and finished on a shaving
horse using a draw-knife. With no
official regulations on their construction,
bats were made in all sizes and shapes.
Some were as short as 24", while others
were as long as 48" (allowing an unbelievable 8' swinging arc!). Early bat makers
experimented with curved bats, bats with a narrow slit cut
down the center, and even flat bats. If
you didn’t have the means to turn a bat

back then, players weren’t picky – a cut
handle from a rake or a pitchfork would
do just fine. In short, a player could use
just about anything he wanted. Early regulations
entered the scene in 1859, but even they weren’t that
strict: Barrels were limited to 2
1/2" in
diameter, but players could still use
any length they desired. Ten years later
the bat length was limited to 42", and
in 1895 the maximum barrel diameter
was increased to 2
3/4". Bats weighed in
the 24-48 oz. range (today’s bats weigh
about 33 oz.), and cost around 25-40
cents for an unfinished bat and up to 85
cents finished. While regulations were beginning

to govern bat size, they didn’t limit creativity.
Some bats were adorned with
decorative shapes on the bat knob, such
as a mushroom, a carved baseball or
an acorn. One of the most unique bats
that appeared in the early 1900s was
the double-knob, also known as the
double-ring handle, that had a standard knob at the end and second knob
6" above that. This bat was favored by
such greats as Ty Cobb (Detroit Tigers,
Philadelphia Athletics), Nap Lajoie
(Cleveland Bronchos and Indians;
Philadelphia Phillies and Athletics), and
Honus Wagner (Louisville Colonels and
Pittsburgh Pirates). This is the bat we’ll
make for this project.

In
the years of the transition from the horse and buggy to the automobile,
tongues from wagon wheels were a
perfect source of bat blanks and it was
not uncommon to see ads soliciting the
public to make bats. The first bat patent was issued in 1864, while the
first
manufactured bat came 20 years later
in 1884. The first baseball bat factory
and trade-marked bat were established
in 1887.

Getting on deck
Bats have been made from many types
of wood, including ash, oak, maple and
hickory. As the years went by, the players found that a bat made of ash
would
hit the ball best. Ash makes a medium-
weight bat which allows a batter to
swing at the advancing ball quickly. This
became important as the speed of the
pitch increased.

As you plan your bat, first determine whether you want to make one
for actual use, or for display purposes;
this will help you decide what species
of wood to turn. We’ll be turning ash
in this project, but if you plan to display your finished bat, you can use
just
about any wood at all that would make
for a handsome showpiece.Start with a turning blank in your
chosen wood (Fig. 1). Ready-made
blanks are available from a number of
sources in both square and rounded
stock, or you could have one cut to
order at your local lumber supplier.Find and mark the center of each
end of the blank (Fig. 2). Then set your
lathe’s spur center on your marks and
tap it firmly into place with a mallet
(Fig. 3). (You could also cut a pair of
1/8"-deep grooves following the center
lines you marked, for easier mounting
with your spur center already in place
on the lathe.) With the blank now mounted on the lathe,

check that it’s
secure between centers (Fig. 4).(Note: For easier
turning, you might want to remove the four corners of
the square blank and create a roughly
octagonal shape before mounting on the
lathe. You can use a band saw or hand
saw before mounting.)

Roughing into first
At this point, you can move the tool
rest into place and begin roughing the
blank into a cylinder using a gouge.
I usually run my lathe between 600-
1,000 rpm for this step (Fig. 5).
For the double-knob bat we’re making here,
the cylinder will be a maximum of 23/8" at the barrel end,
so rough your entire blank to about 1/8" above that diameter.
Using a caliperr, check frequently to
be sure you don’t remove too much
waste (Fig. 6). While it’s
generally best to keep the thickest portion of your turning – the
barrel end

of the bat,
in this case – near the headstock, if
you should inadver-tently take off too
much from the headstock end, you
can simply plan to make that end of
the blank your handle instead.Keep working the
blank until it has been turned to a uniform diameter.

Shaping into second
The next step is to decide on what style
or profile bat you want to produce.
Here’s where you can be creative or follow a certain era’s
specifications as men at the beginning of the article.You can enlarge
and cut out either of the profiles pictured on page 27 to
make a turning template, or come up
with a similar profile of your own. If
making your own, draw a sketch with
dimensions at key transition points or
even better, make a profile cutout to
follow.

As already stated, the double-knob
bat we’re making here measures 23/8" in diameter at its widest
point; overall length is 35". Starting from the barrel
end, our bat tapers very slightly – only
1/8" – over the first 8". From that point it
tapers a bit more steeply to a diameter
of 2" at the 12" mark, 13/8" at 18", down
to 11/16" at the 25" point. From there
to the front of the first knob the shaft
remains a uniform 11/16". The handle
portion between the two knobs flares
very slightly from 11/16" just behind
the first knob, to 11/8" just in front of
the second. The front knob is 111/16" in
diameter at its widest point, while the
end knob is 13/4".Remember to start and end your
profile about 1" from the blank ends
(if you have a very long blank, it’s all
right to leave more than 1"). Using a
caliper and pencil, transfer your key
transition points that will define the shape of your bat to the

blank, as in Fig.
7. Now you’re ready to start making your own
piece of baseball history come to life.

Turning into third
Using a caliper frequently to check you progress, cut on these lines to the diameter, plus about 1/8". As
the double-knob
handle is the most intricate part of this
bat, we’ve elected to start on the handle
end (Fig. 8). Begin to shape
your profile between the handle and the rest of the barrel
using the roughing gouge (Fig. 9). I
usually run my lathe between 1,000-
1,800 rpm for this step. Once you’ve
completely roughed the shape of the bat profile, increase the
lathe speed and use a skew along with
the calipers to finish turning the bat. I
usually run my lathe up to 2,600 rpm
for this step.

Finishing into home
When you’re satisfied with shap-ing,
proceed through increasing grits of
sandpaper to arrive at a nice, smooth
surface (Fig. 10). The last
step before removing your bat is to burnish the sur-
face. Do this by gently but firmly rubbing several handfuls of shavings
across
the spinning surface as in (Fig. 11).
You’ll actually be able to see a shine
developing on the wood.Using your parting tool, turn the
waste at each end of the spindle to 1/4" or so as in Fig.
12, then
remove the bat from the lathe. Cut off the waste tips at
the ends, and hand-sand and smooth
the cutoff nubs from the ends.I like to stain
my bats and seal them with a coat of paste wax. But with historical reproductions, you can arrive
at a final finished look and still be true
to the originals. In the case of your
new bat, you can top it off with a plain